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Constitution

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The fundamental laws of a state. It may be either despotic, aristocratic, democratic, or mixed.

To give a nation a constitution is to give it fixed laws even to the limitation of the sovereign’s rights, so that the people are not under the arbitrary caprice of a ruler, but under a known code of laws. A despotism or autocracy is solely under the unrestricted will of the despot or autocrat.

 

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.

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Consolidated Fund (The)
Consols
Consort
Conspirators
Constable
Constable de Bourbon
Constantine Tolman (Cornwall)
Constantine’s Cross
Constituent Assembly
Constituents
Constitution
Constitutions of Clarendon
Construe
Consuelo
Contango
Contemplate
Contempt of Court
Contenement
Contentment is true Riches
Contests of Wartburg (The)
Continence of a Scipio